As a Liverpool Supporter, Would You Take Fernando Torres Back?

There’s no question that emotion can play a big part in being a sports fan–it’s why we support teams through thick and thin. Some fans happily support teams their entire lives without ever seeing an ounce of success, while others angrily curse their team for not repeating their glory days.

The hero aspect of sports can play on a fans’ emotions very strongly–from superstars to cult icons. At Liverpool we love Steven Gerrard as much as we love Jamie Carragher, as they have both served the club well for their entire careers. And more than likely, we will love them for the rest of our lives because of said loyalty. It’s what can take a player into a club’s pantheon, while just as easily condemning him into the tar pits reserved for the El Hadji Dioufs of the world.

Liverpool fans will likely bring up other names immediately–Michael Owen, for instance. The Boy Wonder’s descent wasn’t exactly rapid– I think many Liverpool fans can understand the allure of Real Madrid, the club that Michael Owen immediately departed to. So Owen went to a sort of purgatory of former players, not hated but merely forgotten. But due to his failure to shine in La Liga, Owen was forced back into the Premier League, where he would have been welcomed back to Liverpool with open arms. But Owen instead chose money and glory at Newcastle (don’t believe the story that Liverpool wouldn’t pony up the money) further dropping Owen in the eyes of Liverpool fans. He had moderate success with the club, but when they were eventually relegated to the Championship, Owen had yet another choice to make. He joined Manchester United, the club that all Liverpool fan’s unequivocally despise. It was a pay-to-play deal, understandable due to Owen’s injury record, and most of the football world just laughed at Alex Ferguson’s choice. But what truly blackened Owen’s record in the minds of Liverpool fans was his attitude towards Liverpool and its fans. Never will Liverpool fans stand up and defend Owen, never will they include him in the lists of favorite players, never will they buy a new jersey with his name on it.

Enter Fernando Torres, star striker with the pedigree to show for it, from Atletico Madrid in 2007. Torres got off the mark quickly, and won the hearts of the Kop instantly; his first goal came in his Anfield debut against recent rivals Chelsea. Torres continued to break Liverpool records and form a fantastic partnership with captain Steven Gerrard. He was constantly raving about the city of Liverpool, brilliantly exemplified in Adidas’ commercial showing the “Spainification” of the city. But in 2010, big changes were happening at Liverpool; the manager that had brought Torres to Liverpool and aided in his development, Rafa Benitez, was sent packing by the highly destructive owners Tom Hicks and George Gillette. Roy Hodgson was brought in to manage the club, and Torres was in a bit of a slump; everything from the tactics to the mentality at Liverpool seemed to go against everything Torres was used to at the club. Rumors had often surfaced about Torres leaving the club, but in early 2011 right at the end of the transfer window, Chelsea put in an astonishingly high bid for the Spaniard. The club promptly rejected the bid, causing Torres to hand in a transfer request. It was right at this moment that the lines were drawn–Torres wanted to leave, there was no doubting the facts. And for one of Liverpool’s biggest and most powerful rivals? Heresy of the highest order.

And so despite Torres’ torrid scoring record at Chelsea (two goals in 19 appearances so far) and the immediate hero status of new Liverpool boy Luis Suarez, many fans are asking themselves and each other whether or not they would like to have Torres back in the January transfer window, as his lack of scoring is likely to put him on the margins at Chelsea.

Cue the emotional ties for me personally. I have only been a big footy (and LFC) fan since around 2008. I had started looking at clubs around the time of the European Championships that summer, and because of my love for the Beatles, I was immediately drawn to Liverpool. And so on a parallel road with Spain’s glorious Euro run, I was falling in love with Liverpool Football Club. When the final of the tournament came around, I was cheering for Germany because all of my friends were and I was still a neophyte in my football opinions. But during that final I was astonished at Torres, a player I had only recently been introduced to. He seemed to glide along the pitch, wreaking havoc on the German defenders with ease. And when he scored the lone goal of the final and all of those around me had their head in their hands, I secretly cheered for my first football hero.

From there my love for the club, and of Torres, increased exponentially: the dedication to watching matches early in the morning on the weekends after about 3 hours of sleep, the purchasing of jerseys from thousands of miles away, the arguments with the few other fans I knew, the deep happiness I felt when Torres put the ball in the back of the net for the Reds. What will make him unforgettable to me is what happened when I spent a month abroad in Greece in the summer of 2010. I had been adamant to get a layover in London on my way to Athens so that I could at least taste English air for a short time, and while loafing about Heathrow, I picked up “Torres: My Story” at one of the airport bookshops. It’s not the best football autobiography, a little amateur based on Torres’ intermediate English-speaking level. But for the five days I spent in a hotel in the worst neighborhood of Athens, and the three weeks I spent on Anaphe (one of the most remote islands in the Aegean), the book became everything to me. I must have read the book four or five times during that month. Every night I would read a few pages, the words pillowing me in a comfort that I was starving for. I could tell you Torres’ entire life story after that month, his god-like status permanently etched into my mind. My naive mind would have never conceived that Torres would leave Liverpool; it just wasn’t possible. I was Liverpool-until-I-die and I just assumed that my hero was too.

Then it all changed. As childish, amateur, and (quite frankly) strange as it sounds, Fernando Torres broke my heart. As soon as I was back into my college apartment, I took a permanent marker to the Torres poster hanging on my wall and funneled my rage into inflicting as much damage as possible onto the poster. One might assume that this would change once the great Kenny Dalglish took the money from Torres’ sale and bought two world-class strikers, Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll. This helped, of course, but it wasn’t about the football anymore for me, it was about the intangible status that I had given Fernando Torres while at Liverpool. I am a huge fan of Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll, two players that may well help bring glory back to Liverpool, but they will never be held in as high of a regard as Torres was.

So all things considered, do I want Fernando Torres back at Liverpool? The rational side of me says absolutely not–his disloyalty can never be forgiven, and his lack of form in over half of a season shows no signs of letting up. Even at a reduced price, his attitude toward his transfer will never be forgotten by those of us that experienced it firsthand. But my emotional side will never see things in a logical manner. I’ll admit that the first time I saw a rumor about Torres coming back, my heart leapt a little from the place it is every time I see him wearing Chelsea blue. So despite the terrible business involved and the lack of necessity of another (out of form) striker, I would welcome Fernando Torres back to Liverpool with open arms and tears in my eyes.

hahaha did u see the miss???? i was like, wtf? how do u miss that? i really thought he’d come back to form after the first goal and he looked like he was gonnna score the volley as well. but this is just incredible. the nightmare continues for Torres. but the good news for chelsea is ashley cole, the block on berbatov’s shot made me think about how the heck did arsenal let him go??? good news for england national team for euro 2012. if they ever play against spain, germany, netherlands, then you bet ya he’ll make those kind of blocks. class act ashely cole. but torres, seriously, that was an incredible miss. the commentator was saying ‘how much bigger a target do u need to score? i’ve lost all sympathy for him after that miss’. so have i, quite frankly.

Torres worked his socks off today, the miss-well, it happens.
As a Liverpool fan, since we have Suarez, we don’t need him b/c those two have a similar style of play.
But I would love to ship back Carroll to Newcastle, Harchester United, Doncaster, Brighton and Hove, etc.: anybody, please! What an awful awful player he is!

Torres actions have reinforced the idea of rooting for a team and not individual players for me. While some are loyal, the vast majority are not.
Enjoy your favorite players while they are on your team, but don’t count on them being there tomorrow.

Given how bad Carroll has been, yes I’d take him back. He is starting to play better the last couple of games so he has shown that he isn’t done yet. Carroll has never done anything of note in his career and is proving to be a total waste of money. It’s not about the 35 million he cost because Liverpool paid that contingent on Chelsea paying 50 million for Torres. It’s just that Carroll brings nothing to the team. He also has off-field problems which makes things worse.

Torres is more than welcome to come back to Liverpool because the club definitely needs talent instead of overhyped British players.

I totally would take him back. liverpool fans are being irrational by saying hes not good enough and the replacements we got with the money is enough to bring us back to glory. carroll is a piece of shit flop. adam,henderson,downing,are all flops. im disappointed in the business we did. enrique isn’t that good either. with the 80m we spent on those players we couldve gotten two world class wingers (which we needed more than anything ie eden hazard/elia/adam johnson etc..), and a world class striker(not a piece of shit party kid ie mario gomez). Our defence from last year wasn’t bad. johnson and kelly can play wing backs. we need to spend heavily in january if we want to make it in the top four. our new team should be reina/kelly,carra,agger,johnson(enrique)/downing(adam johnson),lucas,gerrard,bellamy(hazard)/ suarez, carroll(kuyt does well up top with suarez, remember his hattrick against manunited?). suarez and torres would be way better than carroll and suarez. if we sell carroll we’re gonna lose a shit ton of money but itll be worth it. hes totally worthless in games. henderson and adam should only be used in cup games. can’t wait for gerrard to get back

1. It’ll never happen. Regardless of whatever rumors you may have heard, based on his last couple of games he should have 10 or so goals by the transfer window, I seriously doubt that he will be available.
2. As a Liverpool fan, I realize that I’m in a very small minority when I can honestly say that I don’t harbor any ill feelings towards him. He was one of my favorites behind only Xabi Alonso and Sami Hyypia. If he should score against us then so be it. Better him than a true scumbag like Terry or Cashley.
3. Yes taimur we all saw the miss. No other world class striker has ever missed an open goal, have they?

Why would you want Torres back? We don’t need a player that asked to leave the club – especially since he looks to be on the wrong side of his peak.

“But Owen instead chose money and glory at Newcastle (don’t believe the story that Liverpool wouldn’t pony up the money)…”

Do believe the story. That is exactly what happened. I could be wrong but I think Rafa even discussed this on LFC Television once. They weren’t willing to give Owen another chance (and the salary he expected) since he burned the bridge by asking to leave the club and had a huge drop in form. Liverpool may have offered him something similar to what Manchester United have him on now but he still thought he was worth more at the time.

im sorry but the moment you said “bought two world-class strikers, Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll” i couldn’t take this article for what it was. I’m a fellow Red but LET’S BE HONEST, Andy Carroll, World Class Striker? are you serious?!? im sorry mate but i don’t know what player you’ve been watching.

As for the Torres dilemma, if things keep going the way it is for him at Chelsea, if they were to sell him, he’d be off to the likes of Milan or Inter. But if he were to ask for a transfer to come back to us it would be a different story. Possibly a story of “Forgive and Forget” for Liverpool fans to take him back?

I will tell you one thing though, under odd/crazy/unique circumstances, I would forgive Torres and welcome him back. Something I would NEVER EVER CONSIDER for Michael Owen.

Like Rafa once said, “I want to talk about FACTS!”. Forget all those Liverpool fans saying they wont take him back. If he comes back and starts scoring goals again like he did in his first season then all would be forgiven instantly. All fans really care about is players who score goals, no matter what that player has done before. I can tell you that the majority of Liverpool fans will wish they still had Torres over Carroll as it is. Carroll for 35mil is one of the most expensive jokes out there. Dunno how that price tag was ever deemed appropriate considering other world class players whove been bought for a third of that. But then again, Kenny’s overspent on good but ultimately overrated English players. The likes of Aguero, Silva, Toure, Mata and even Torres in his heydey have shown that the spanish league is where to go shopping for talent. Rafa did that with Reina, Alonso, Torres, Arbeloa, Luis Garcia, Riera etc and look how well they turned out. Torres’ miss was awful but at least he’s looking sharp again whereas Carroll looks like all that beer has taken a toll. Someone please remove the cement in his boots coz they are too heavy. Geez. I rest my case.

Torres was brilliant a couple of years ago, and despite not scoring much this season, his form is much improved. But is there room on the Liverpool squad. People seem to want to overload a team with talent, but only so many players can take the pitch.

I’d like to take Torres back in a second, but it doesn’t seem that reasonable. Liverpool needs a bit more cohesion and Torres isn’t the solution to that.

Right now I’d send Andy Carroll to Chelsea plus 20 million for Torres. That’s the difference in class between the two players. Chelsea are finally seeing the Torres of old and within a week or two he will be firing on all cylinders.

Torres.. I named my freaking dog after him.. (ok Nando Calrissian the Magnificent).. if he returned now, earned his way back into the starting 11 and started scoring goals… absolutely.

Chelsea wouldn’t sell him now, nor would they sell him in December. IF they did, it would very likely be to a team in Spain or Italy. Will I can certainly see a wee bit of romanticism in the thought of The Kid who could have been king, returning to play for The King, but realistically it’ll never happen.

Torres likely burned that bridge by moving to Chelsea, while not the same as moving to United, still pretty bad. IF he came back and scored. Yes.

I loved when Torres wore the red, but I wouldn’t take him back. Not necessarily because his form, or current clip (he’ll be close to firing on all cylinders soon making much of this debate moot), but because what Liverpool needs is help in the back, not up top.

Watching Škrtel get so thoroughly abused by Bale last Saturday was enough to turn a man’s stomach, and Carragher’s no spring chicken either (his form fluctuates between ‘passable’, and ‘tired’, to merely ‘ok’).

This question would not be asked if Andy “the joke” Carroll wasn’t so bad. At any price Carroll is pitiful. So of course any Liverpool fan in his right mind would take Torres back.

The next question ought to be “Is Daglish doing the right thing by buying British talent at over-inflated prices?”. My answer. No. Not wanting skillful players like Miereles and Aquilani but relying on Henderson and Adam instead does not show good judgement.

Spurs stuck to their guns on Modric but Liverpool decided to let Torres leave. Look at the results.

Any true Liverpool supporter would not have Torres back, he sulked, bitched, whined and moped until he got his move, he had left the club in his head long before he went and I was hacked off of seeing him paid over a hundred grand a week to not try, unforgiveable. We also spent 2 years looking for the perfect foil, the perfect player to complement him and spent a lot of money to sign him, what happens? The minute the Suarez deal is done and dusted he submits his transfer request, just as Kenny had taken over and the new owners had come in too, making a it a very different place than the one he had become disillusioned with. He left us high and dry and I and anyone else connected with this club should not ever want to see someone who behaved the way he did in a Liverpool shirt again. He’s and absolute disgrace and cannot consider himself a professional footballer, professionals do the job they are paid too a la Modric at Spurs. Hope he ends up like money grabber Owen, seen more often racing his horses than on a football field, neither of them has an ounce of class or dignity. Enjoy the Capital and your plastic flag waving supporters Nando. Thanks for the good memories. Now jog on….

In a heartbeat. Yes, he left just when things were turning around at the club but he had already made his mind up long before and given how dismal things were under the old regime I don’t blame him for leaving. The new regime hasn’t really lit things up at the club either. Bringing in players like Carroll, Henderson and Adam all of whom are mediocre at best doesn’t instill confidence in the club’s ability to compete against the likes of United, City, Chelsea or Spurs. With someone like Torres liverpool would easily make the top 4. Without someone like him, it’s very doubtful.

In the modern era, there is very little loyalty either on the part of clubs or players. Torres did not grow up supporting Liverpool, like Gerard or Carragher, so it is not a surprise that he decided to leave when he felt frustrated that the club wasn’t moving in the right direction. He obviously didn’t want to wait for a year or two for Liverpool to improve. I don’t blame him. So I have no ill-feeling towards him for leaving. Of course, had he gone to United I would feel very differently. Then again, I would hope Liverpool never sell anyone to United as United never sell to Liverpool. Also, it is not as if Liverpool didn’t benefit from selling Torres. The club got 50 million! That’s unbelievably good business. The fact that Liverpool went out and spent 35 million on a dud isn’t the fault of Torres. For 35 million the club could have bought Benzema and Turan, as an example. So I would welcome Torres back as he offers much, much more than Carroll. With Torres Liverpool could challenge for the title. With Carroll the club has no chance.

The question is only being asked because Carroll has turned out to be useless. Personally I’m not sure about wanting Torres back but if I had to choose between Torres and Carroll to lead the line for Liverpool it would definitely be Torres by a mile. I hope the club rectifies it’s mistake in buying Carroll and buy someone decent in January. Otherwise I’m afraid it’s going to be another disappointing season with no CL football next season either.

When Torres left I never wanted him to ever come back to Liverpool. He disappointed lots of fans. However, time is a healer and I don’t feel as strongly about him as I did then. Especially with the club needing a quality striker (Carroll just isn’t cutting it at the club) I would take anyone, even Torres, to replace Carroll.

There are other quality strikers out there, like Negredo of Sevilla, who could also do the job. But to answer the question of whether I would take Torres back, yes because Liverpool needs a quality striker and Torres is way better than Carroll.

This is a great question in light of the fact that Carroll is so poor and Liverpool is in dire need of a quality striker. If Torres were to apologise and say he made a mistake in leaving the club then I would not hesitate to have him back at the club.

Right now I’d send Carroll plus 25 million to Chelsea for Torres. Players make mistakes and have poor judgement just as clubs make mistakes and get things wrong. Torres would improve the club drastically so it’s a no-brainer. We all know what Torres can do. Even this past week in the CL and in the loss to United he showed that he still has quality, much needed at Liverpool. He missed a couple of sitters but at least he showed signs of his old self. It’s only a matter of time before he starts scoring regularly again. Carroll on the other hand shows no promise and has off-field issues that make things worse.

I would not take Judas Torres back in a hundred years. The Liverpool management would never buy him back anyway. He didn’t want to play for the club anymore so that’s it.

Of course there’s a lot of blame to go around concerning the lack of talent at Liverpool at present and having spent over a hundred million one would expect better quality. Unfortunately the likes of Carroll, Henderson, Adam and Downing are good players but nowhere near the quality needed to get the club back into the Champions League. United, City and Chelsea are way ahead of Liverpool as far as squad strength is concerned and even Spurs are much better right now. Carroll is nothing more than a decent Championship striker. Heskey was much better when younger than Carroll is now. Heck, Heskey today is better than Carroll is. Henderson has the potential to be very good but right now he is mediocre at best. I saw in at the U-21 tournament and he was poor against the competition. Adam is too inconsistent to be a reliable midfielder. Downing is the best of this lot but he can disappear in matches which is a concern.

Liverpool need players with technical skills and quality. Miereles should never have been allowed to leave. Aquilani, while having had a hard time adjusting to the EPL, is still better than anyone at the club now at midfield except Gerard. So let’s bring in better players. But not Torres!

My dream is to see Torres and Gerrard play together again. I will welcome him back with open arms. I believe that he will never be successful for Chelsea becuase his style of play fits in with Liverpool, and if he returns he will be successful again. Fernando – you broke my heart but you can come back anytime.

I can’t blame him for being stupid, yea sure he can come back… he deserves forgiveness just like the rest of us.. even though he’s as intelligent as the right sleeve of my shirt, he can be a decent squad player but he is not worth more than 12 mil these days..

I love Torres because i support west ham and would love him at upton park because we lost 3-0 to reading. I have also failed my driving test 3 times and i am an awful head boy because i dont listen to anyone and i do what i want.